HEALTH officials can find themselves damned if they do and, more often, damned if they don’t.

Oxfordshire’s primary care trust has a higher body mass index threshold for free weight-loss surgery on the NHS than the guidelines suggested by Nice, the National Institute of Clinical Excellence.

One surgeon believes there could be up to 10,000 people in the county who could benefit from the surgery – a staggeringly high number.

Some of those are undoubtedly proper cases to be considered for NHS surgery, suffering through medical or genetic conditions they can do nothing to control that ultimately threaten their lives.

However the vast majority should not be expecting the hard-pressed taxpayer to sort out the mistakes they themselves have made which have led to their current conditions.

It has always been the case for most people that sensible diet and sensible exercise will keep the weight off.

Iain Playdon, who lost 15 stone, is a perfect case in point, and he agrees.

There is surely no choice between spending the NHS pound on cancer sufferers or those who only have themselves to blame through their indolent lifestyle choices.